


When You Fall, I'll Already Be Waiting

by spiderm4n



Category: Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Guns, Violence, not really apocolyptic more desertrs and messed up economic system
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-28 01:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8425669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderm4n/pseuds/spiderm4n
Summary: The world has gone into chaos. with violence in every corner, its either killed or be killed. The Dumes have no sympathy for the weak.So hold on to your guns and trust no one.





	1. We started out as sixteen

We started out as sixteen of us.

People had been writing books, films plays about an apocalyptic world for decades, but when it happened the world spiralled into chaos.

The Dumes was not a good place to be alone. Vast landscapes of sand, sand and nothing but sand laid out in front of you. Water was a struggle; the only natural source being the snow and ice that come at irregular times. There are no seasons, one day you’re burning to death, next minute you’re falling unconscious from the cold. You had to have friends in these places. Well, not so much as friends as much as people you trust enough to hold a gun whilst standing behind you.

Of course, there were people who preferred to struggle and fight alone. Typically found in an abandoned shed of some sort, we called them desolaters, or secluders. Then there are the “upper class” people who we call the landers. These are the ones who live in the rich parts of the Dumes, who own the few houses left and get education. Then there are the stranglers; the drug dealers; the thieves; the one’s you don’t want to bump into at night. They will torture to get information. Tear of your limbs for money.

We started out as sixteen of us.

We worked well as a team. Our camp based on the outskirts of Gnouiln, one of the towns in the Dumes. Being seventeen, I was one of the youngest. Pete, our leader, was twenty-five, and that’s about as old you get. The average lifespan living out in the Dumes was around thirty, though recently children rarely made it to their teens. Pete was our leader, we looked up to him, though that didn’t mean he wasn’t scary. Not so much as passing a smile to one of us except maybe Patrick. Ask him about his family and he’ll glare at you to death. Could kill a man in sixty seconds with his bare hands. Sorry, has killed a man in sixty seconds with his bare hands.

Patrick was Pete’s second hand man. Around twenty-one, Patrick was the complete opposite to Pete. One was that he was chubby, a rarity throughout the Dumes due to the lack of food to the point of starvation. He had strawberry blonde hair, also rare in the Dumes, I never saw anyone except Patrick who didn’t have brown or fair hair. With his sunny and optimistic attitude, Patrick was more of a Father figure to me than a friend.

Then came Bill. He was my so called “best friend”. We met each other when I was fifteen, he was eighteen. I held a gun to his head and from then on we were best friends. We joined the camp a year later after we had managed to persuade Pete to let us in. The month coming up is the anniversary for four months, and I turn eighteen in two months.

We started out as sixteen of us.

A guy called Ollie disappeared. No death, no blood, just disappeared.

The next week it was Rachel.

The next Joseph.

Then Trina,

Then Alfie.

Then Roberta.

Then it was Alex.

We started out as sixteen of us. now there is only nine. And we don’t know who’s next.


	2. When Brendon Tries To Fight Someone With His Skinny Ass Arms(tm)

“Oi, Brendon! Collect the water, will you?”

I sighed at the calling. As I was the youngest and newest of the camp, I was bossed around and expected to do as I was told. I didn’t know who was ordering me. Since the twelfth death, Pete has made everyone wear their masks or bandanas. At first I thought it was ridiculous, but after the next day I quickly obliged. Now it was a week since the first death, and everyone had their wits about them. I had been forced to start sleeping with my gun tucked into my belt, another new order from Pete. We had timed watch sessions each day and night and it was wearing the strength out of everyone. The Dumes were bad enough without waking up at one o’clock and falling back to sleep at four, when the sun was just rising.

I picked up the litre full of water left over from the hail storm that had been the previous day. We got water from hail, snow, sleet but never rain. If it was raining, it rained for days and you don’t want to be drinking that. Rumour is that one of the small countries next to us had some kind of war, and some lunatic ended up spreading chemical weapons to our country, and presumably the rest of our continent. The rain turned to poison or acid that burns into your skin from one drop. If you were caught out there for more than a few minutes you were a goner.

When I checked that no one was looking, I tipped some of the water I was carrying into an empty camel skin water bottle. I don’t know if there are any actual camels in this desert, but I paid a good amount of money and it does the job. Some people would say that the action I was doing was selfish, I just say every man for himself. Even if someone did see me, other than Pete or Patrick maybe (who seem to be the only people who give a damn about others in this camp), they most likely wouldn’t report me. What I’m doing is necessary and could one day save my life.

I heaved the bucket up onto the desk in front of the person who wanted me to. When I got a closer look, I could see that it was Alex, boyfriend of Jack and about the least intimidating person you could meet. His messy hair swiped to the side just looked like an old age emo trying to be cool. His boyfriend though, Jack, was the opposite. He basically had an aura around him that said “when I say jump, you say “how high?””.

“See, I told you I could be intimidating when I want to be!” Alex said, words slightly muffled by the bandana he had tied around his head. I flushed as it looked like I could be told what to do by anyone.

“Oh please, this sod is hardly a sufficient example. Look at him, he doesn’t have a rebellious bone in his body!” Jack’s seemingly joking but harsh voice cursed through me. I hadn’t been here long, I knew I had to make my mark sometime. I felt adrenaline rush through me, and I said something before I backed down.

“At least I don’t show off my muscles and humiliate my boyfriend to make me look big.” Jack’s eyes went comically wide and I had to bite my lip to stop me from bursting out in laughter. He looked through the slits in his emerald-green mask at me, eyeing me up.

“Where are these muscles and boyfriend coming from? You know that no-one would go out with a little cowering desolater like you.” Jack replied, no hesitation and his lazy smirk settled into his face. There was a little “ooh” coming from other tables and I turned around to see a few people watching us with interest. It was our hour off, and most people came here to relax and have a drink out of the disgusting versions of beer we have here, but of course Bill wasn’t here right when I need him. He would be able to charm his way out of this situation, probably make jack fall in love with him in the process. 

“I’d rather be a desolater than a city boy.”

“At least I don’t spend all my time moping about my family,” he put his heart to his chest, ”Oh, why doesn’t mommy love me? Why doesn’t dadda love me? Why doesn’t- “But he didn’t get his sentence out because I had already punched him in the face. I may have only been here for four months, but it’s an unspoken rule that you don’t talk about my family. You just don’t. Time seemed to have slowed, the perfect expression of shock was on Jack’s face, and probably on mine to. A thought fleeted across my head, “I just punched Jack!” than a second. ”Oh shit, I just punched Jack.” Suddenly time seem to catch up with itself as my body got a blow to the stomach. I cried out, although I was pretty strong, Jack had hands like steel. I looked up to see four people watching over me. 

“What! Is going on here?” Shouted a deep voice. Looking over, I saw that Patrick was walking over. He was wearing a turquoise mask with a hat keeping his hair off his face.   
Seriously, he has that thing on 24/7, how does he manage to train with it on, or bear it in this heat?

“He started it!” I looked over to see Joe pointing at me. I glared at him, but he just shrugged his shoulders, seemingly unaffected. 

“Right. Brendon, is it? You can come with me.” Patrick’s normal bubbly attitude was gone. He marched me up through the camp and I visibly gulped when we stopped in front of Pete’s office. Patrick rung the pathetic make-shift bell and a voice shouted, “Come in.” 

Pete’s room was just the same as when I first came here, nearly four months ago. It was an ugly shade of green with some lowly lit lanterns across one part of the room. After that there was a bed and a desk that Pete sat at for days doing goodness knows what. After glancing round the room, I eventually lead my eyes back to Pete’s, to see him staring straight at me. I looked at Patrick to start explaining when I saw him staring at Pete so intensely I felt as though I should leave. Patrick cleared his throat slightly and I saw a faint red twinge in his cheeks as he spoke. 

“Sir, Brendon was found fighting with Jack.”

Pete looked at me, then Patrick, then back at me again. With one final look he said, “Patrick, please may you leave the room while me and Brendon talk?” Pete asked. 

“Certainly sir.” Patrick said before turning around and leaving. “And call me Pete!” he shouted after him.

He then turned to me. “Brendon, what possessed you to start a fight with Jack?”

“he was provoking me,” I mumbled.

“what did he say?”

“He started talking about my family” I replied, my head down. I felt so pathetic when I used that excuse.

“Listen Brendon, I can’t have this. You can’t go going around picking fights when they mention your past. There are some dodgy buisnesses going on and you’re not going to help by turning camper against camper. Things aren’t safe anymore, and no one knows what’s going to happen next.”

-

Bill was witing anxiously outside the door.   
“I heard you got into trouble again. Jack, really, Jack? You don’t stand a chance against him. Brendon? You okay?”  
“Yeah.” I replied. “Yeah I’m fine…” but really I was just thinking about what Pete said.

No-one knows what’s going to happen next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed:)
> 
> feel free to ask questions in the comments!


	3. Chapter 3

The next day I woke up to the sound of ringing bells. Before I registered what was happening, my mind casted back to the reoccurring dream I was having frequently. I was stood in the middle of the Dumes, brushing away the sand with a mop. After a while, a boy came into view. He never spoke, just stared at me and then went away again. He had honey-brown hair and big doe-like brown eyes. he was a couple of inches taller than me, and maybe slightly older. After that my mop turns into snakes and I wake up. I had had that dream once every week, since the first “death”. 

Suddenly my broken door opened with a crash, and before I had time to protest I was dragged out of bed. My rag acting as a duvet fell off and I was broken from my moment of comfort. I threw my head back and faintly recognised my “attacker” as Bill. He had an alarmed expression on his face.

“William! What are you doing?” I yelped as I fell out of my little pile that I call a bed. 

“Are you deaf! The bells are going off! We have got to meet in the dinner room. Someone else is missing!” He yelled at me, tugging my hand towards the door. 

“Okay, okay I’m just gonna lay here for a while…” I wandered of, my eyes shutting as I rested my head against the floor. I’m usually a early riser, but seriously, it’s like 4 in the morning. Of course, I wasn’t getting away that easily.

“Come on,” Bill insisted. He looked like he was almost laughing. “We gotta see who it is! And you don’t wanna be on Pete’s bad side, especially after yesterday.” 

“It’s not like we talk to anyone here anyway. And I’m sure Pete won’t mind one more minute,” I mumbled, although gathering myself off the floor anyway. Bill was right, we didn’t want to get on Pete’s bad side, and be potentially get kicked out. Plus, I wanted to see who was missing too. In a sick way, the disappearances are the only exciting thing in this place. It can get very tedious, just doing jobs and hanging around with nothing to do all day. When we first got here, me and Bill had a testing day to see what our strong points are. Turns out, I’m apparently more suited to gathering and preparing food all day, rather than out in the Dumes shooting people. I don’t really have the eye for killing things with guns. Well, I can hit a target, but I can never get bullseye. 

We both headed down stairs to the dining room. It was an old restaurant apparently, this place, before President. Gnoulin took over the land and built a city, draining the resources and naming it after himself. As we entered the diner, my attention was immediately drawn to the corner of the room. I turned my head to see a distraught person and a comforting Pete. I edged closer so I could distinguish the – boy?’s features. After a few seconds, I realised it was Jack. 

Why was he so upset? It’s not as he was particularly friendly with anyo- oh. Then it dawned on me. There was someone who he was friendly with. Alex.

As I looked around, I could see that I was most likely correct. Alex was nowhere to be found. Me and Bill shared a look and I knew that we both knew who it was and that we both felt awful about it. And to think that we were excited as well, just for a bit of drama. I nudged Patrick who was next to me, trying to find out more information. He turned around to look at me.

“What’s going on?” Bill asked, motioning towards Jack and Pete.

“Oh, you two weren’t here when Pete explained, were you?” We shook our heads and he carried on. “Well, Alex was found missing about half an hour ago. Jack reported Alex had been out to the toilet, and he never came back. Jack went to look for him but couldn’t find him anywhere. He went to my room instead, and was in almost in tears. Pete went out to look for any strangers, but outside was deadly silence. No break in, no one has reported any noises, we don’t know if Alex willingly went with whoever took him, or if he put up a fight.” Patrick finished off his account by straightening his fedora and looking at us expectantly. 

“So, what’s going to happen now?” I asked after a few moments.

“Security is going up. Pete’s mentioned trading some stuff to get some proper materials to rebuild this place,” Patrick told us. “Apparently, we have some old guns that we can rip them off with.”

“Well I think the most important question is, what was Pete doing in your bedroom?” William asked with a smirk, ever the shipper. The blush that immediately rose on Patrick’s cheeks gave us the answer right away. I nudged Bill and we shared a look. 

“Well I think you should get to get to bed boys, don’t you? Getting up time officially starts in two hours,” A voice came from behind us. We turned to see Pete. 

“Right, yes, well we’ll just, you know, go,” I garbled, me and Bill turning to leave to get some actual sleep.

-

When we woke up that morning, you could cut the tension with a knife. It was always like this, the day after a disappearance, no one trusting anyone else and everyone being slightly suspicious of one another, but today was difference. Alex had been taken, one of the few people that weren’t a violent, probably a murderer, people hater in the Dumes. To whoever took him, that was a low blow. 

That day was the same as the rest in this endless cycle of living with nothing to live for. I got up, grabbed a piece of bread and hurried out with the rest of the people who work with me, which is now two other people. We didn’t speak much, just silently did our own thing and went looking for weeds or some sort of plant we could cook. William’s group were out finding animals, or desolaters that have some spare gunoulines or food. Pete and Patrick stayed in to guard the restaurant. They occasionally came out to help one of the groups, but more often than not stayed at “home”. Tomorrow they would be going out to town, and Ashley and Hayley would be in charge.   
At the end of the day, Jack went up into his room and refused to come out. We all shared looks and sent silent messages of sympathy out to him. 

Me and Bill had some pasta and then went up to bed into our room. We didn’t talk as much as we would, and it was clear that we both didn’t trust each other as much as we used to

Me and William needed to trust each other to survive. If these disappearances were coming between us, something definitely needed to change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait and this shitty chapter, thanks for reading and ask questions in the comments! :)

**Author's Note:**

> even if this is crap I'm gonna force myself to keep writing.
> 
> feel free to ask questions in the comments and thanks for reading!
> 
> btw i edited it a bit so if you read it before 11/4/2016 then you should probs read it again


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